Berlusconi's 'striptease flats' found

PM is alleged to have kept 14 women in apartments

Nick Squires in Rome

ITALIAN prosecutors have uncovered a series of properties in Milan that were used to accommodate a stable of young women who were paid to perform striptease for Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, according to investigators.

The claims, contained in 300 pages of legal documents, provide details for the first time of the so-called "bunga-bunga" parties that a teenage Moroccan nightclub dancer said she witnessed last year at the prime minister's mansion at Arcore, outside Milan.

Paying for sex with a woman under the age of 18 is a crime in Italy and Mr Berlusconi would face a prison sentence of up to three years if the allegations were proved. Prosecutors want to interview him this week and insist that he face trial.

The 74-year-old prime minister allegedly kept up to 14 women in apartments in Milano II, a housing estate he built in the 1970s. Police allegedly found sex toys, gifts of expensive jewellry and envelopes stuffed with €20,000.